All (or at least Most) Good Things Come to an End

Got notification the other day that the writers' forum Authors by Design will be closing up.

Authors by Design emerged after the shutting down of My Writer Buddy forum, which ended oddly and somewhat abruptly. AbD had a couple owners/managers over the years, but with the advent of twitter and Facebook and more, it wasn't able to keep up. And running a forum takes a lot of time and commitment, and I appreciate those that stepped forward to keep it up and running.

What I especially appreciated was that AbD supported private crit groups--online crit groups whose forum section was only accessible to the specific crit group members (and AbD's admin team). This allowed the works to be 'unpublished' as they were not viewable to the public, including regular members of the forum.

It was where I moderated Planet Ink, a SF/Fantasy based crit group for four years, and was a member of and eventually moderated Elysian Fields for over ten years.  Good times, good memories, great people and many fond memories.

The community of AbD was always friendly and supportive, even if small by many writer forum standards.

It'll be missed by not so many, but the intensity of the felt absence will make up some for that, I am sure.

Anyway, like everything...one will have to move forward, but keep those writing lessons and memories stored away...or at least I will.

Ranking of Pop-Tarts

Okay, I am a fan of Pop-Tarts and when I stumbled across this article on Yahoo, I figured I'd take a look at it.

After scanning and seeing that my favorite flavor of all 27 came in 26th. and the justification for it, I decided to look a little further.

I was figuring on some sort of survey--not necessarily scientific. At least it said, "We" as the article is titled: "We Ate and Ranked All 27 Pop-Tart Flavors". But it turns out it was just one person's opinion.

Okay, must've been a slow opinion news day. Very disappointing for a even a fluff piece, even if the individual had selected my favorite nearer the top.


Here's a link to the article, if you might want to see where your favorite ranks as compared to this individual's favorite: We Ate and Ranked All 27 Pop-Tart Flavors
 

Authorcast: Building Self-Confidence as a Writer

I usually check in on the Authorcast podcast by David Wood and Alan Baxter.

They're friendly, humorous, and offer insight into the publishing industry (self, small press, and large press) and writing, promoting and more.

Here's their most recent podcast release: 119- Building Self-Confidence as a Writer

Local Author Talk at the St. Paris Public Library

Like the advertisement to the right says, I've been invited to speak to the Friends of the Library and visitors on Tuesday, May 19th from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.

Come ready for an interesting presentation and discussion, and with any questions you might have. Even if you don't have questions, you're certain to enjoy the snazzy PowerPoint Presentation that will be supporting the discussion. :)

I'll also have copies of my novels available, or bring copies you already have to be signed

Location:
St. Paris Public Library
127 E. Main Street
St. Paris, OH 43072

Here's a link for additional information: St. Paris Public Library Website

I hope to see you there!

T-Shirts Featuring my Novels

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Once again the Digital Design & Print Class at my school proved their skills and knowledge.

The two ladies below modeling two of the five final products took some of my ideas, then created the design and layout for the T-Shirts and completed the silk screening.

Jasmine Hummel & Maylea Reeder

I hope to use the shirts to promote my novels. More pics showing the work of Jasmine and Maylea will follow--they did more than just the front graphics shown. :)

My Books on the Shelf

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It's always neat to see my my novels and short story collection on a shelf, whether at a bookstore or a library...although being sold out or cheeked out is the goal. In any case, here's a pic of my novels on a library shelf.

Fiction Section of the St. Paris Public Library

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