River City Comic Convention 2018 Cancelled This Year

I just got notice today that the 2018 River City Comic Convention will not happen this summer.

Here is the note from the event coordinator:

In a difficult and unforeseen turn of events, this July’s show has been canceled. I have been fighting some health problems the past few weeks, and have sadly come to realize I wouldn’t be able to put on the quality of event we’ve always tried for and the fans of the Mid-Ohio Valley deserve. Artists and vendors will be receiving table refunds shortly. Thank you for your understanding.

While I'll miss crossing paths with a lot of folks I've come to know, I look forward to participating next year.

Short Mystery Fiction Society Announces 2018 Derringer Award Winners

The Shorty Mystery Fiction Society has announced its Derringer Award winners for:

  Flash (Up to 1000 words)

  Short Story (1001 to 4000 words)

  Long Story (4001 to 8000 words)

  Novelette (8001 to 20,000 words)



Here's a link to the Announced Winners: Derringer Awards

Amazon's Indifference and Gryphonwood/Adrenaline Press

As you may know, my publisher is Gryphonwood Press. Two days ago my publisher was accused by Amazon of violating its terms of service, and had all of its ebooks removed.

The allegation apparently centered around the belief (likely determined by one of Amazon's bots) that my publisher was engaged in activities related to inflating page reads with respect to Kindle Unlimited. Amazon is what Amazon is, a mega-large corporation that is largely indifferent to anyone or anything that is not of sufficient size affect its profits.

My publisher discussed what happened (based upon what my publisher absolutely did not do), the possible cause for the false accusation of violating Amazon's Terms of Service, the ramifications, and the results in the podcast Wood on Words, Episode 55.

Here are the links:
55- My Kindle Nightmare (Blog post where read the details, the back and forth and consequences)
Podcast: My Kindle Nightmare (discusses in more detail beginning at 14:43 into the episode).

The issue is not an isolated incident. It is affecting dozens of authors and publishers that I know of, and my connections in the publishing words are fairly limited. As for me, it has already had deleterious effects on my novels and reaching readers.

How bad and long-lasting is yet to be seen...which makes me feel extremely bad for those whose livelihood (like my publisher) is being negatively impacted.

** As of last night, the ebooks published by Gryphonwood/Adrenaline Press were returned by Amazon, and my publisher taking steps to ensure there will not be a recurrence.