This and That

On November 1 NanoWriMo begins. The idea here is to write a complete novel in 30 days. It works for many writers and some have come out of their month of writing with a rough draft that gets polished and sold. If you're interested in this process here's the link http://www.nanowrimo.org/ And over at Alexandra Sokoloff's Dark Salon blog you find "The Plan" to help you get started with your Nano project. http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/

And if you don't have a novel in you, maybe try for 30 shorts in 30 days. That might be a fun challenge. There are a lot of markets for 1000 - 2000 word stories, not to mention those flash markets for 500 and under. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

There's been several nice reviews and write-ups for "The Gift of Murder", this year's Toys for Tots Christmas Anthology. Here's the links:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2009/10/the_gift_of_murder_a_toys_for.html

Lesa Holstine has written a very nice review on her wonderful Lesa's Book Critiques blog.
http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/2009/10/gift-of-murder-edited-by-john-m-floyd.html

And Kevin Tipple posted one on his review blog, Kevin Tipple's Corner. http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2009/10/reviewing-gift-of-murder-compiled-and.html

Earlier this week we were discussing the mixing of genres to create a short story. Well, this week, Charles Gramlich has just such a story published at Beat To A Pulp. His story, "Hunter's Moon" is a mix of sci-fi, horror, mystery, and romance. And what a mix it is. You can go read this great story here http://www.beattoapulp.com/stor/2009/1025_cg_HuntersMoon.cfm