Century Post!

So this is my 100th post to this journal! Whooo!

I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished with this blog in the last eight months. I've posted consistently, documented my journey as a first-time novelist, and made some great friends along the way. And some of you must like what I have to say, because I now have 144 followers! I can't believe it!

Thanks to every single one of you for your kindness, support, and positive energy you've sent my way. I never expected anything like this when I started this blog. I'm overwhelmed at the amount of amazing writers and bloggers I've met since I started this journey.

And the journey is just starting to ramp up... with KillerCon on the way (don't worry, I'll be giving you a full report *salutes*), other conventions to plan for, editing on the novel close to being finished, a new novel to research and start a timeline for, short stories to polish and/or compose, a website to launch (later this month!), and a whole lot more... I hope you'll stick around for what's coming up next.

And as for other things coming up next, remember that Pay it Forward contest I had a couple of months ago? The winner was Karen G from Coming Down the Mountain. I bought a copy of her book (as per the contest prize rules) and expect to finish it this weekend! So keep an eye out for my review next week, and I'll also be posting an interview with Karen!

There's a lot of stuff to work on this weekend... finalizing business cards for KillerCon, working on the edits for the novel, practicing for the contest at the convention, finishing up Karen's book and writing a review, getting short story submissions ready for upcoming deadlines. I'm so looking forward to the days when I can do this full-time and not cram it into weekends. But until then, I'll just keep on going for as long as I can and try not to get in this guy's predicament:



Sometimes I feel like this when I am editing... Almost there, almost there, almost... wait a sec... WHAT needs to be revised again?! Where am I in this book, anyway?!

I'm sure y'all can identify. ;)

Have a FANTASTIC weekend, friends!

Alex J. Cavanaugh - Giveaway SPECTACULAR!

My cool friend Alex J. Cavanaugh is having a contest on his blog for the next two weeks! He just announced it yesterday. The prize is a copy of his upcoming science fiction novel, CassaStar, and, as Alex puts it, "a big feature here for the winner."

You should get right on over there and check it out! Click here to check out Alex's blog entry for the contest, complete with all the details!

And in case you're wondering about CassaStar, here's the book trailer! Take a look at this!

I can't WAIT for this book to come out!

Congrats on the 200 followers, and the upcoming release of your novel, Alex!

Contest Practice, topic: Murder in the Igloo

I was able to get a little farther tonight, at least it felt that way. I was also able to get all the words in this time, and even before the halfway point, I think. I also increased my word count by almost 100 words, which is absolutely true even though it sounds like CRAZY TALK. Wonder if that'll be a continuing trend or if it was just a fluke.

Ending is rushed, but... serviceable, I guess. I liked the way this one turned. Today's prompt was given to me by Jemi Fraser, via a comment on Monday's entry. Thanks for helping me practice for the contest, Jemi! I really appreciate it. Her prompts were:

Topic: Murder in the Igloo
Words: snow, blubber, knife, bear, sun
Leadoff sentence: see below (first sentence)

Did you know polar bears are all left handed?

The Inuit trader's words echoed in Reese's head as he worked his way across the snow from the sled to the igloo's nearly-buried entrance.

I found that out the hard way, the man had said, back in the last town before the ice cap took over what little lush tundra was left in this late month of November.

Reese had stopped to stock up on supplies, buying a new range knife and half a pound of blubber to feed to his dogs. While he was there, the one-eyed fur trader had decided to get friendly and strike up a conversation about bear hunting.

But Reese wasn't interested in hunting bears. He was a hunter of men.

He'd followed the blazing trail laid down by the sun across the icepack for the last sixteen hours. Disorienting, how it just hovered on the lip of the horizon like a rolling, bloody eyeball.

What was it the trader had told him? "I took the bear's right paw, that was the custom," the man had said in his strange accent. "He was a man-eater. But it angers the spirits to kill such a great animal. Better to take its paw so it may have the chance to live, and have learned to stay away from men."

Bullshit is what it sounded like to Tom Reese, but the farther he got out here the more he thought about the bear in the trader's story and how it reminded him of Garrity, the man he'd come all the way out here to kill.

He'd lost his arm in the firefight, but that wasn't enough for Montano. The old man had sent Reese to the end of the world to finish the job of silencing the traitor forever.

Reese pulled himself back to the present, crunching across the pink-tinted snow. Garrity wasn't here, he was sure, but there would be something here that led him to Garrity. He was very close now.

Which was all the more reason to be careful.

The bear took my eye, the trader whispered in Reese's memory as he began to methodically clear the igloo's entrance. He could have taken my life. I was lucky.

Lucky, Reese thought, and that was exactly the moment when the yellow, furred paw burst out of the snow beyond the opening and clawed across the back of his arm.

Reese jerked backward in surprise, barely feeling the ragged gouges in his flesh. Blood poured over the nylon of his blue parka, but he was oblivious.

All thought was lost to him when he saw the creature pulling itself out of the snow, widening the hole he'd made.

Garrity must have left it for me, he thought, horrified. Days ago.

And God, it must be hungry.

I wrote the last three paragraphs of that in a literal frenzy. This is bare, unedited stuff, let me tell ya. I could barely read my chicken-scratch. And my hand was KILLIN ME, friends. Still, it felt good to get it done. I want to keep doing this as much as I can, because it's REALLY good practice. I want to have this process down pat before I go to Vegas.

Gonna have to take the timer out of the equation because I keep staring at it, and I want to start getting a feel for how long fifteen minutes is without constantly looking at the timer to see how much time's left. Wonder if they'll let us keep a watch?

If you'd like to leave me a challenge, please feel free. What did you think of this one?

Contest Practice, topic: The Living Dead

Howdy. Thanks to those who submitted a few prompts for contest practice for me yesterday! I have the first attempt ready. I definitely need to practice more at this. I managed to get about two paragraphs from the end. Right now, I'm just going to post what I was able to write. I may try to finish it later.

I chose Cruella Collett's prompt first, mainly because it was the first one to hit my inbox. Her prompts were:

Topic: The living dead
Words: shortcut, bushel, fist, tureen, mangrove
Leadoff sentence: see below (first sentence)

"Don't look back!" Gerda Aldrin said, as the last conscious look in her eyes faded into a blank stare of nothingness.

Christopher choked back a sob and transferred his baby sister to his other arm. They'd been running for nearly thirty-six hours now, and Elsa was heavy for a two-year-old. Christopher was exhausted.

And he was only eleven.

"Come on," he said to his sister. She blinked at him with sleepy eyes.

"Ma?" she asked.

"No, mom has to stay here," he said, and the black reality of that truth rolled over him like a boulder made of fear. He switched her to the other arm again - it wasn't much of a help - and pushed past the mangrove trees, on into the deeper swamp as quickly as he could.

Before their mother had a chance to open her eyes again and reach out for her children, dead fingers clutching, teeth clicking together like the ball bearings in Christopher's broken skateboard.

An hour later, Christopher gently lay his baby sister down on a dry hummock of swamp grass and looked around. He'd been sure this was some kind of shortcut, but now in the darkness - and through the shifting gray scrim of exhaustion threatening to bludgeon him into unconsciousness - everything looked the same. He sat down beside Elsa and punched at the ground, not realizing how mucky it was.

A hand closed over his fist.

Christopher jerked backward, eyes popping, mouth drawn down into a silent scream. He kicked at the mound rising out of the squelchy black mud. Eyes opened in the dirt, one bleary with mud, the other a clear and questioning blue. The bump of its rising head looked like an upside-down soup tureen, handles for ears, smooth dome of brow curving back for what seemed like forever.

Christopher grabbed his sister, shaking her out of her thin sleep. She began to wail immediately. Chris clamed down on her arm as hard as he could and her little mouth turned into a perfect "o" of pain.

"Else!" he screamed, crying out again as the creature in the muck - once human just like them - pulled him closer.

"RUN!" he cried.

OK, so that's what I came up with for the first attempt. I left out one of the words (bushel; it was coming in those last two paragraphs), and I wasn't able to get to the ending. Close, but no cigar. My hand was singing frickin Ave Maria by the time I was done, too... I think I need to do this more than once a night... but I gotta work up to it. I had a lot of fun with this, though. It was weird - no planning, no thought, just launch into a story while the clock is ticking... but it was fun. More will follow in future entries, I'm sure.

What do y'all think? I know what I think: MORE PRACTICE!!

If any of you would like to leave me a challenge, please feel free. I only need a horror-related topic, five random words, and a leadoff sentence to start. I'll take care of the rest. Thanks to Cruella for this great beginning to a new path!

A Call to Writers

Exactly one month from now I'll be getting on the plane to go to Las Vegas for KillerCon. WHOO!!

If there's anyone out there reading this who'd like to attend the con and meet up there, please let me know in comments or by shooting me an email (or Tweet, or whatever social media poison you prefer). I'm traveling by myself and I would love to hang out with some blogiverse friends... Regardless, I hope I can make some new friends at the con. I don't want to spend the whole weekend by myself.

I'm also wondering if you guys can help me with something. KillerCon is having an on-site writing contest. The convention committee gives the assembled contestants five words, a horror-related topic, a leadoff sentence, and fifteen minutes. The contestants have a sheet of paper and a pen. After the fifteen minutes is up, they compare entries and choose a winner.

I want to enter this contest, but I'm a little nervous about writing it longhand for a couple of reasons. First is the physical side - because of a car accident two years ago, it's very difficult for me to hold a pen for any length of time. Five minutes is hard. Fifteen minutes is torture. But the more I practice longhand, the easier it gets to do.

The other side is how much slower my hand is at writing my thoughts as opposed to typing my thoughts. My typing speed is on average around 90 wpm, so it's a LOT faster to type than it is write longhand. Which means I don't write as well longhand, because it feels clunky and it's difficult to get up to the speed I want to write at.

So here's where YOU come in. I need to practice this longhand coming-up-with-stories-on-the-spot thing. If you will, leave five words, a topic, and a leadoff sentence in the comments of this entry. I'll time myself and try to do one each evening. Since it'll be hard to get more than a page or two out over fifteen minutes' time, I can post the best pieces on my blog. It won't be entirely spontaneous like the contest will be, but at least I'll be getting some practice at quick invention, along with strengthening the muscles in my hand for quick writing.

What do y'all think? Can you help a fellow writer out?

I hope each and every one of you has a fantastic last week of July. :D

Pay it Forward Giveaway Winner!

IT IS FINISHED.

This statement applies to many things in my life right now.

Sadly, one of them is not the WIP. However, I'm really proud of the progress I made in the month of May. I've reached 391 pages and 113,000 words, which is farther than I ever expected to go with this scary little story. Since I worked Freedom Weekend Aloft this weekend, I get a couple days off this week (today and tomorrow) and I truly hope to be able to finish it then.

Other things which ARE finished are:

- The month of May
- Spring in the South (Helloooooo, Summer!)
- Freedom Weekend Aloft (thank God!)

Hmmm... what else is finished... OH YEAH!! The Pay it Forward Giveaway! I'm announcing the winner today! In fact... I'm announcing the winner right now!

Before I tell you who won (yeah, making ya wait... I know you hate me), I'd really like to say THANK YOU to everyone who responded to this contest. When all the entries were tallied up, I had over 400 entries from bloggers who tweeted, facebooked, blogged, and used various other means to spread the word about paying it forward. Some bloggers even went on to start their own contests on their own blogs, either using my format or making up one of their own entirely from scratch.

I'm overwhelmed by the response. And so excited to share this wonderful idea with you guys. The blogging community has really buoyed my spirits over the last month. I know I haven't posted every day, but I have been reading and commenting as much as I can, and listening to everything you guys have to say. Thank you so much.

And now... without further ado (there has been far too much ado already, thanks)... the winner of the Pay it Forward Giveaway is...

Karen G of Coming Down the Mountain!

Congratulations, Karen!! Let me know if you prefer me to purchase one of your books (I see that you have two for sale on your website) or if you'd prefer the gift card. Also, be sure to let Curt and Shane from Mooks in the Movies know how you'd like your name to be used in their next script!

Also, I surpassed 125 followers, so I added a MYSTERY PRIZE to the pot! The winner of the mystery prize is...

Hart Johnson, the Watery Tart!

Congrats, Hart! The mystery prize is...

Your very own copy of Issue #3 of Fissure Magazine - the literary magazine that published my short story "Avenue of Dust" - autographed from yours truly to you, personally. AND a mix CD, of my own devious devices. Email me your mailing address and I'll get them out to you! Surprised? I hope so! :D

I hope you guys had as much fun with the Pay it Forward Giveaway as I did. I plan on doing another contest in the next few months, and as soon as I have the details figured out, I'll let you know. In the meantime, please don't stop doing little kindnesses for your fellow humans, just because the giveaway is over (for now). Each of us can make the world a little better for someone else. One of these days, the avalanche is gonna kick in.

Have a fantastic Tuesday and let's do everything we can with June! Who's with me?!

Hello, Random Friday

Happy Friday, friends!

Welcome to all my new followers! I'm overwhelmed at the response I've gotten to the Pay it Forward Giveaway. Not only have I received 31 new followers, but so many people have been spreading the word via their blogs, facebook pages, and twitter. I'm amazed!

I said I was going to point you in the direction of a few of my favorite entries... In February, I talked about sleepwriting and introduced my phrase, "the Clark Kent job" (which, if you stick around, you'll probably hear me say every now and again). In March we discussed pacing yourself in big projects and never giving up regardless of how many rejections I get. And last month, during Arlee Bird's A to Z blog challenge, I shared what I thought about the concept of found stories and how I use auditory detail in my fiction. There are some fun places to start in there; I hope you enjoy them.

I had the honor of reading over the first draft of the screenplay for Plateye with Curtis and Shane from Mooks in the Movies, and I had a lot of fun. Has anybody else out there thought about writing a screenplay? I do love fiction, but reading a script has put me in the mood to try something new...

I'll be working at the Clark Kent job all weekend, at a fun little event here in Upstate SC called Freedom Weekend Aloft. It should be fun, but I will be in charge of our booth for all shifts on all days, which means I'll be working 50+ hours over the weekend. This comes at a CRAPTASTIC time for me, as you know, because I'm desperately trying to finish my WIP novel. I know it won't be the end of the world if I finish in June, but I'm so close, and I really want to hit that goal of being finished in May if I can. Also, I've reached the point where the story is fairly flying along, but I just don't have the time I need to devote to hours of getting it out. I'm serious. I'll be writing and writing and writing, and when I look up at the clock, four hours have passed. Sleep... what is that, again?

I'm wearing my grandfather's dog tags today. They're helping me remember a few things: patience, courage, determination. In everything I do - working, writing, living, I want to try to keep those ideals in mind. It's also fitting that I'm wearing them this close to Memorial Day - they help me remember the sacrifices he, and every American soldier, have made in order to ensure our continued liberty.

I hope y'all have a great weekend. I'll be back Monday (if I live through Freedom Weekend) with a full report on how things are going. Until then, friends.

Quick Questions, For the Masses

Howdy, friends! Thanks to everybody who welcomed me back yesterday. I'm still riding the happy from my weekend, and all your kind comments and shared thoughts really added to my buzz. I can't stop smiling! You guys are awesome. It means a lot when you take the time to comment on my entries, so thanks very much.

I have a question. Do y'all comment on your visitors' comments, or do you leave it alone? Cruising the blog-o-sphere, I notice a healthy amount of both. What's your preference? Normally I don't comment on my own blog. I do, however, read every single comment made and if someone asks me a direct question I try to answer it, either in the comments or in a future blog entry.

And I have another question... But first, do the happy dance with me, BECAUSE I PASSED 125 followers yesterday! Welcome, everyone! Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog! I hope you find some good reads here (I'll direct you to some of my favorite posts on Friday). Since I passed the 125 mark, I'm adding the MYSTERY PRIZE to the giveaway booty list! (Booty list... heh.) So, the question is... would you like to know what the mystery prize is on Friday when I give you a Pay it Forward update, or wait until the contest is over to find out?

Many thanks for your thoughts, friends.

Have a fantastic Hump Day!

Pay it Forward Update

Hello all! I announced my very first blog contest, the Pay it Forward Giveaway, on Friday of last week, and I have a couple of updates about it for you!

First, THANKS for all the wonderful comments, reposting, and goodwill-spreading! I've gotten a great response for this so far! I can only hope the two weeks will continue to be as amazing as the first few days of the contest were. In just three days, I received over 200 entries from interested bloggers! WOW!

I also gained 11 followers already - YEAH!! Welcome, new folks! Take a look around! Here are a few entries for you to peruse while you're here. They're some of my most popular posts, and you can learn a bit about me and my blog if you decide to take a gander:

Lycanthropy Awareness (from Arlee Bird's A to Z blog challenge)
A Fine Romance, With No Pages
Clark Kent vs. Superman

11 new people! That means we only have 14 more to go before a MYSTERY PRIZE gets added to the contest! Whoooo!! I think I'm as excited about that mystery prize as I am about the contest itself!

Also, Curt and Shane from Mooks in the Movies have thrown something out there to be added to the Pay it Forward Giveaway grand prize! As you know, the winner gets to choose EITHER a $25 gift card to the bookseller of their choice OR what I like to call an "Author Sponsorship Package" which includes me purchasing your published work (up to a $25 value), reviewing it on the blog and your bookselling website of choice, giving you and your work plugs on my Twitter and Facebook and hosting an author spotlight on my blog for you. Well, Curt and Shane are adding this little gem to that package:

To sweeten the pot, I am offering this. In addition to the sweetness of her prizes, we Mooks will name a character in one of our screenplays after the winner! You heard it right folks! Now, with respect to people's privacy, we will handle that this way:

We can name the character using your first name, screen name, or just a name you really like. We will also post a link to the winner's preferred media here on our blog as well. So, if you are the winner, you get your name used in one of our screenplays, and we will announce you as the winner, with a link to your blog, website, whatever!

How cool is THAT?? Awesome, huh? If you haven't had a chance yet, get on over there and follow their blog! You'll get +7 entries in the contest for it!

Also, Kierah Jane Reilly did her own spin on the Pay it Forward contest here. She started a really neat trend on her blog that's spread out to at least four other blogs so far... can't wait to see how far it goes! And I love your choices for the "In real life hangout", Keirah!

One more thing... the Pay it Forward Giveaway is inspiring another group of writers to compose some Pay it Forward drabbles! If you don't know what drabbles are: they're pieces of flash fiction, written in exactly 100 words. No more, no less. I can't wait to see more about this and share it with you as it develops!

Thank you so much to everybody who's gotten involved with this! I love this community!

The Pay it Forward Giveaway ends at midnight on Monday, May 31st! If you'd like to know more, visit this link for details!

Pay it Forward Giveaway

Hello, friends!!

First, THANKS for all the kind comments on the entry regarding color in prose yesterday! I'm excited so many people liked the idea. And YES, I hit 100 followers! *internet high fives all around* Thank you, everybody!

Second, a story -

I pulled the cash out of the bank envelope. A hundred dollars cash back, just like I'd...

Wait a sec.

Four twenties and a hundred? I checked my deposit receipt and blinked in surprise. It showed the amount I'd asked to be deposited.

Eighty extra dollars...

I've told you a little about my life, enough for you to know I'm pretty damn poor, right? Eighty dollars. SO much money. And in cash... untraceable, I said to myself. I kept seeing the little yellow Community Chest card from Monopoly.

I drove around the block. Take it back or keep it? My brain was yelling for that cash. But my gut and my heart were reminding me of KARMA... and I just couldn't in good conscience keep the extra money. It wasn't mine to keep! Before I could talk myself out of it, I went back to the bank and went in.

When the teller counted her drawer and realized I wasn't joking about an extra eighty dollars in my envelope, she looked at me, pale in the overhead fluorescents. Her eyes were wide. "Thank you," she said in a trembling voice. "You literally just saved my job." She went on to explain that anything more than a $50 discrepancy in a drawer was grounds for instant termination.

She also told me that she had never experienced a customer coming back in to give back money after a mistake had been made. She looked at me as if I'd grown an extra head. Grateful, but wary.

She thanked me again, and I told her if she really wanted to thank me, she should just pass the good deed along. She gave me a little smile and nodded. Who knows? It just might work.

End of the story. Well, that particular chapter, anyway. Or, perhaps it was a prologue? Because I'd like to announce my first-ever blog contest! Flourish of trumpets, please!

The B. Miller Fiction
Pay It Forward Giveaway
So... seems as if doing the right thing has gone outta style. I'd like to try to change that. And I'd like you to help me. First, let me tell you what the prize is ('cause I hate waiting, and I know you do too).

The grand prize for this giveaway is the winner's choice. EITHER a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble (or Borders, Amazon, etc - whichever you prefer) sent directly to your preferred mail receptacle, OR...

If you are a writer with published work available for purchase, I will buy your novel/story collection/chapbook, etc., up to a value of $25. I will also read your work and give a review on your chosen website, as well as a review and a plug on my blog, Twitter, and Facebook fan page. I will go to my local library and booksellers and ask that your work be stocked on my local shelves in Greenville, South Carolina. And, if you're willing, I will do a guest feature on my blog for you, complete with interview and links to your media.

Yes! You're smiling! I can tell! Awesome!

OK, ready to hear the rules?

This will be, like many contests out there in blogland, a multiple-entry contest. Here are the basic ways to get entries:

Comment on this post: +1
New follower: +1
Old follower: +2
Tweet or post on Facebook about this contest: +2
Follow me on Twitter (@bmillerfiction): +2
Become my fan on Facebook (see sidebar): +2
Blog about this contest: +3
Include this post in your sidebar: +3

This contest is called "Pay it Forward" for a reason. I want to support my writing community however I can, which is why my grand prize is one of your books. I'd also like to help some fellow bloggers expand their audience. So, if you go follow any of these blogs, you'll get +7 entries in the contest.

Kierah Jane Reilly
Curtis and Shane at Mooks in the Movies
Dawn at Through the Looking Glass

Write a story or a poem about paying it forward. Post it on your blog, with a link back to this entry. You'll get +10 entries.

Still with me? OK, last thing... do something selfless. Doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's something outside of your usual routine. Something you have to go out of your way to do. If the recipient of your good deed asks you how they can repay you, tell them to pass the goodwill along to someone else. Post about this encounter in your blog. Link back to this post. Make sure to let me know with a comment (or send me an email at millerb75 at gmail dot com). For this, you will get an additional +25 entries.

This contest will run until the end of the month. I will be announcing the winner on Tuesday, June 1st. I'm also working to get the WIP MS done by the end of the month so we will have cause for a double celebration! YEAH!

I will also be giving away a MYSTERY PRIZE for each additional 25 followers on my blog. Oooooo... You can't resist a mystery, can you?! :D

Don't forget to let me know what you've done to up your contest entries. Post them on this entry or email them to me at millerb75 at gmail dot com. Remember, if you don't let me know what you've done, you won't get the extra entries. If you have questions, comments, etc, feel free to drop me an email.

Good luck, friends! Oh... and have a fantastic weekend!

Tags, an Award, and my THANKS

I'd like to say THANKS to each and every one of you that left a comment on my blog entry about agents yesterday. The general consensus seems to be working with an agent is definitely preferable to working alone. I got some really insightful viewpoints from a lot of authors and I really, really appreciate all the feedback you guys left. As much as I love Stephen King, I think I'm going to go against his advice here. I feel that I need an agent to help me go to bat with the big guys. But I do appreciate his concern and will do my best to keep my eyes open for potential rip-off artists.

Last week my friend the Watery Tart tagged me in a little questionnaire and I wanted to go ahead and get the answers out there. Sorry for the delay, Hart!!

Question 1 - Where were you five years ago?
1) Living and working in Indianapolis, IN
2) Writing a few short stories here and there
3) Learning the importance of family
4) Missing my home in South Carolina
5) Finding out everything there is to know about commercial lighting

Question 2 - Where would you like to be five years from now?
1) On a book tour!
2) Not working the Clark Kent job any longer
3) Writing my third (or fourth) novel
4) Living in the South
5) Preparing for my 40th birthday party (it'll take months to plan, ha!)

Question 3 - What is (was) on your to do list today?
1) Working at the Clark Kent job
2) Writing a blog entry
3) Soldiering on towards the end of the WIP MS
4) Laundry... so much laundry!
5) Bowling with a couple of friends this evening

Question 4 - What 5 snacks do you enjoy?
1) Does delicious beer count??
2) Devil's food cookies
3) Mint Oreo fudge cremes... these are ridiculously good
4) Pistachios
5) Sopressata salami and fresh mozzerella

Question 5 - What would you do if you were a billionaire?
1) Pay off my family's houses, cars, and any other debt
2) Start a grant program for Southern writers
3) Create a new publishing house that's open to all genres
4) Buy a movie studio and make my own films
5) Travel all over the world

The other half of this little game is tagging five people to keep the questions going! Here are my tagged blogfriends:

Mel Chelsea of Caledonia Lass
Curtis and Shane of Mooks in the Movies
Lola Sharp of Sharp Pen/Dull Sword
Falen of Falen Formulates Fiction
Theresa Milstein of Substitute Teacher's Saga

Also, I was given a blog award last week by Laura Marcella of Wavy Lines!

Thanks for the Superior Scribbler award, Laura!! I'm passing this on to the following blogs:

Alex J. Cavanaugh
Simon C. Larter
Beth Revis

These guys are awesome and if you don't know 'em yet, try to take a minute today to check 'em out!

One more thing... 99 followers!! As soon as I hit that hundred mark I'm announcing a blog contest! YEAH!! Check back soon for more details!