Okay, if you follow my blog please change your bookmarks to http://madison-woods.com
The new blog looks different but I haven’t customized it to my own style yet. For now, I like the weird dreamscape.
This will be the last post on this blog, unless something unexpected happens between now and the next time I post.
I’m not sure how many little differences there will be (aside from immediate appearance), but for now this old blog will remain active. Just unused.
Another week has flashed by jam-packed with new things going on.
I’m working on the first update message to those interested in being a part of the flash collection I’m compiling. That ought to go out this evening. If you don’t know what I’m talking about but think you’d like to be involved, use this handy form to let me know you want in:
So my blog will have a new home as soon as I figure out how to move it intact. This is not proving to be as easy as I thought it would be. Worse come to worse, I ‘ll leave it here and make a link to it from the new location. I’ve bought my domain name. When it’s all set up we’ll have a housewarming party 
It’s going to be a combination website and blog.
Stacy Plowright (one of the Fictioneers who lives in Canada) sent this email to me the other day and it’s definitely worth sharing. Please take a few minutes to read the links and understand what’s going on and how this affects us as writers.
I was ashamed to admit I knew next to nothing about this subject. I don’t have television at home and the only news I get is whatever NPR discusses on my transit to and from work:
Hi Madison
I am up in Canadia (spelling deliberate), but I’ve been following the DOJ happenings going on down there. I presume other authors have too. I encourage American Fictioneers who want to voice their opinion on the subject to do so (and to pass the message along).
The actual lawsuit is here: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/ebooks04112012.pdf
And these articles contain some of the industry thoughts on the matter:
“Comments must be submitted in writing by June 25, 2012.You may send comments by regular mail or e-mail to:
John R. Read, Esq.
Chief, Litigation III
Antitrust Division, United States Department of Justice
450 5th Street, NW, Suite 4000
Washington, D.C. 20530Please include a reference to the litigation:
United States v. Apple, Inc., et al., 12-cv-2826 (DLC) (SDNY). Comments on Proposed Final Judgment as to Defendants Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.
All comments received will be considered by the Justice Department, published in the Federal Register, and filed with Judge Cote.”
Best,
Stacey
Go here. Mine’s the one under the pic and everyone else leaves links for theirs either in the inLinkz app (which is on the story page) or in the comments. Enjoy!
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We welcome readers and writers to enjoy and contribute to our collection of 100-word stories. Every Friday the Fictioneers gather here from all over the globe to share stories, offer criticism and encourage each other.
Many of us are published and have titles to offer – some of us are just starting out and are learning the ropes of both writing AND blogging. If you find yourself intrigued by one of our 100-word short shorts, then browse around that author’s blog and see if they can sate a bigger appetite for you too!
If you’re an author, you’re encouraged to leave a slug line to your latest title for sale after your 100-word entry. Also, a 25-word pitch would be perfect for this. Please limit it to that so this event doesn’t become a ‘Buy My Book’ push instead of the generous community it has become.
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Care to take a stab? Votes are anonymous and there’s no requirement to comment.
We’re beginning something new this week! After you read the 25 words and before you vote, listen to the 30 second audio pitch. Do you think the spoken pitch is compelling enough to sway your vote? Any feedback will be appreciated!
What we are measuring in this experiment is reader interpretation. What does someone think of your book when they read this short blurb? Does it make them want to buy it or at least read further? Editors and publishers may look at these blurbs differently, but ultimately, they’re readers too.
So this is how it works. Read and listen to the pitch/blurb below and then vote as to whether you’d buy the book and tell your friends about it. If you have constructive crit to offer, do so in the comment section.
A caveat.
Don’t vote ‘No’ because you don’t read or want to read the genre. If the genre is a negative bias for you, please refrain from voting unless you are able to be objective about the quality of the blurb.
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Title: Symbiosis Author: Madison Woods
Genre: Fantasy
What about you?
If you want to put your 25 words to the test, email me your pitch/blurb (25 words or less) at the addy over there on my right hand side-bar.
I’m also taking 30-second audio pitches. If you’ve already sent your written pitch and want to also send an audio, just email it to me and remind me your 25 word pitch is already here.
Be forewarned. 25 word summaries are difficult! I struggled with mine for days. Okay. I’ll be honest. I’ve struggled with mine for a while now…months, even. But I think I finally have one that’ll work and when there’s a lull in the pitches I’ll throw mine out there to be slaughtered, too. (I said this last time, too, haha.)
You’ll be welcome to run yours again later when everyone in queue is done, and you’ll especially want to do this if you’ve made changes. Plus, as the campaign runs for while, word will spread and we’ll get more views and votes.
At the end of the week I’ll email you with the results.
The poll will stay active indefinitely, so if you want to direct people to your link to cast their votes, you’re free to do so.
If you need some ideas on how to distill your large blurb down, the canaries at The Canary Review are as good as it gets. Canarythefirst *helped* me once a while back when I was working on my longer pitch here on my own blog. I need to read this post every once in a while for a refresher. You should read it too. It’s pretty funny!
Here’s what Canarythefirst had to say about my recent 25-word pitch: http://thecanaryreview.com/2012/06/01/pitch-slapped-you-only-get-three-seconds-to-make-a-first-impression/
Also, here’s a great link from David B. Coe (fantasy author published by Tor): http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/on-writing-and-publishing-refining-your-elevator-pitch/ He took pitches one day and gave feedback to a bunch of us.
Of the approximately 500 submissions, Darin Beasely of Marco Polo has made his calls. Check out #24 on that awesome list of 100 
Vincent Fino Mother’s Day Retreat
Ellen Azorin Dionisio
Mary Byrne Qa’id
Robbie Maakestad Seasick
Ellie Anglin Two Women
Anne Germanacos Language
Benjamin Zaban-Boylan You Are a Boat
Chris Sgro Ten Minutes Outside Kuriyama Hokkaido
This week, if I get the software/app installed in time we’ll use a different way of leaving links. Keep your fingers crossed because it might make it a lot easier to visit each other’s blogs. Some of you have mentioned it to me in the past and I’m only just now getting around to researching it after Lora mentioned it this afternoon. No early linking this week until I get the software installed so we can all be on the same system. For now, here’s the photo for this week:
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Put your best efforts on display for 100 words (more or less) and hop on board so we can all see what you’ve written this Friday (come back to my blog and follow the links).
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For those of you who want to pre-load your posts, here’s the link to where my story will be: (Pathways). The page is/will be there, the picture is/will be there, the link is/will be live. But there’s no story yet. I’ll add that Friday morning as usual. But this will allow those of you who have to be out of town, or for whatever reason want to get started early, to link to it so we can all find you more easily.
Why only 100 Words
100-words isn’t a *rule* and some of us write more than that. My goal is to have The Friday Fictioneers use 100-word stories as an exercise in choosing concise phrases and strong verbs. It’s an excellent way to show your stuff to the world without exposing too much. It’s okay if you use more words, but if it’s much more let us know in the comments so we’ll know how to allocate our time if we’re trying to read all the posts.
Put your best efforts on display for 100 words (more or less) and hop on board Friday with links back to your blog so we can all see what you’ve written. If you don’t have a blog of your own you are welcome to post your 100 words in the (Friday) story page. Go to the side-bar calendar and click on the current week’s Friday date. Then follow the link from there to the story page.
If you accidentally post your link here on this page today, you’ll miss out on a lot of the blog hopping because the action will be stemming from links on the story page.
You can click the “Flash Fiction” tab at the top to read a little more about Friday Fictioneers.
I hope to see your creativity shining Friday!
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First of all, participating in the Friday Fictioneers story shares here on my blog is totally FREE. There is absolutely no obligation whatsoever to buy anything at all from me now or in the future. Ever.
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The Friday Fictioneers is a community I started for the purpose of building a network. It is intended to drive traffic to your blogs to read your stories and provide feedback on your writing in a flash Friday campaign. It is NOT intended as a business venture for me other than in the sense that it is building my network. It’s building your network, too. By participating each Friday or as often as you like, you will grow a healthy stash of 100-word stories for your portfolio. This is an asset to you. It’s one of the perks of participation, aside from the feedback and traffic and fellowship.
Yes. I do hope that by having developed a network, I have success in future endeavors. That doesn’t mean I expect anyone in my network to buy anything of mine, but I do hope it opens channels across the globe that will connect me to others who DO want to buy my books (whenever I have one to sell). When I have articles or stories published, I hope it leads to readers – if not directly then indirectly. That is what networking is. If you are in business, you should want to do this too. I invite you to take advantage of the things I’m learning and sharing as I figure out my own way in this world of business in the technical age. If I rise to higher levels, everyone in my network will benefit. If you are in my network and you rise to higher levels, I benefit. That is how networking works and there’s nothing dishonest or shameful about it.
The photos I post as prompts were never intended to be part of anyone else’s portfolio. The photos I post are for sale but no one is required or encouraged or in any way made to feel they have to buy them ever. I have in the past let you know they are for sale. It is an aspect of the business I do here on my blog. On my side-bar I’ve posted that the photos are free to use on your blogs if you provide a link back to me. (It’s also okay if your blog posts through to Twitter and Facebook.)
If you want to collect the photos with your stories on your blogs, that’s perfectly permissible. Just link back to this blog. If you want to print your stories with the prompts for your personal use at home or to give to family and friends, that’s fine too.
However. If you intend to compile your stories with the photos in a collection to offer on a public forum (whether you’re selling them or giving them away free) like Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords, or any other outlet for distribution of media other than your blog – that is different. The pictures are for sale if you want to do that. But some of them have already been purchased by others who want to do that. So you can only buy the ones that are still available.
If you have a question about whether you can use a photo, feel free to ask. If the answer is “no” or if you’re not happy with the terms, please be civilized in your response.
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( This note is to those of you who were here when this document first became a necessity – Thanks for the support and feedback and the disagreement because it helped me to develop this mission statement. )
Many of you have signed on to be included in the flash collection I’m planning to do at the end of this year. (I’m getting ready to send out the first update so if you’re not on my mailing list, send me an email if you want to be included).
I’m still working on editing. But now there are a few other things lining up to be done, and I’ll have to leave many of them on the back-burner until the editing is finished.
So this week we will have reached the end of our first round of pitch dissection. There are still new ones coming in and I’m adding them to the calendar, but my turn comes around again this Thursday.
It must be a significant indicator that I’m finally growing some thick skin because I’m actually looking forward to it. I’ve been shredded once by the canaries and again by y’all, picked apart by the canaries again, and now once more I’m putting my 25 words on the altar here. I think I’ve bled out already because I’m not concerned about pain or threat of death anymore, ha.
Others of you have decided to go it again, too, and so we’ll have Rainy Kay and Denton Gay again in the following weeks along with new ones by others.
We’ll start the addition of a 30-second audio pitch. When you send in your 25 words, if you want to also post your spoken pitch (up to 30 seconds) send that to me in an mp3 or mp4 format. I’ll go first with that this week. If you’ve already sent in your 25 words and want to add the audio to it, just send it in. I used my iPhone to record mine and then emailed it to myself. So you can do that if you have one and email it to me from your phone. I don’t know how else to do it, but surely there are other ways.
Go here. Mine’s the one under the pic and everyone else leaves links for theirs in the comments. Enjoy!
***
We welcome readers and writers to enjoy and contribute to our collection of 100-word stories. Every Friday the Fictioneers gather here from all over the globe to share stories, offer criticism and encourage each other.
Many of us are published and have titles to offer – some of us are just starting out and are learning the ropes of both writing AND blogging. If you find yourself intrigued by one of our 100-word short shorts, then browse around that author’s blog and see if they can sate a bigger appetite for you too!
If you’re an author, you’re encouraged to leave a slug line to your latest title for sale after your 100-word entry. Also, a 25-word pitch would be perfect for this. Please limit it to that so this event doesn’t become a ‘Buy My Book’ push instead of the generous community it has become.
***
The Internet is down so this is the best I can do from my phone. When it’s back I’ll post the proper page.
Here’s the link to the story page for today: Vertigo
