M.L.S. Weech's Blog, page 83
October 30, 2017
Submissions open tomorrow! A Call for Stories to be in an Anthology!
Greetings all,
I’ve been posting about it for a while now, but tomorrow’s the big day (hopefully)! Since it’s the first, and I do the Book Cover of the Month every first, I thought I’d make this post today.
This is the official opening of submissions for The Power of Words.
The Power of Words is a science fiction / fantasy anthology inspired either by the First Amendment or the prompt of the title.
Submissions must be absolutely no larger than 30,000 words. Any entries totaling more than that will be immediately discarded.
There is not limit on the number of your entries. You can submit as many stories as you like. They must be either science fiction or fantasy (anywhere in that range). Please submit the highest quality product you can deliver. While I will be making a content edit on all selected pieces and paying my editor for her proofreading services, I need you to deliver a product you’d stand behind.
Seven entries will be selected to join my contribution. Selected contributors will receive 10 percent of all online sales. They will be allowed to order physical editions through me (Order plus shipping and handling), and authors will be permitted 100 percent of any personal point of sales. Online royalty payments will be made quarterly, on the last day of the month. Please have a Paypal account, as this is the simplest way to make a payment. I’ll try to work something out with each contributor, but life is just far easier if you have Paypal.
[image error]All selected authors will be expected to market the book as well. This is important as I’ll openly admit I’m not a good marketer. I’ll do my end on my social media accounts and with book promotions, but every author should do his or her part.
Entries will be accepted from Nov. 1 until Nov. 30. Once submissions close, I’ll post an update on reviews and when people should be notified. Anyone submitting this does not submit their rights to the story. Contracts detailing rights will be sent directly to the seven selected authors.
Entries should be emailed to mlsweech@gmail.com. Please type, “My Power of Words Submission” in the “Subject” line. Please include:
Your name and pen name if applicable.
A brief (50-100 word) summary of your story.
Your bio.
Your website.
Your email.
Also please include any titles you currently have published (if any).
[image error]All stock images from Pixabay.
I’ll be selecting the contributors. Selected contributions will be determined on the quality of the story and only the quality of the story. For those of you interested in what I find high quality stories, I’ll say I connect best with stories containing sympathetic, proactive characters. All stories will be considered, but I thought it fair to let you know what I find the most value in.
I’ve never done anything this ambitious before. As I’ve said, I’m honestly not sure what’s going to happen, but if one never tries something, one never achieves it. This could be huge; it could fizzle out before it gets started. I fell in love with the idea, so I felt the need to at least try. I’m happy to report I have had some interest, so we’ll see how this goes.
I can’t wait to update you all on how things are going with this effort.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
October 27, 2017
NaNoWriMo: The Spirit of the Month I Never Actually Participate in
Greetings,
As November approaches, which is a pretty big month for me, I’ve seen quite a few NaNoWriMo posts, and that got me thinking. I’ve written some 10 manuscripts in my life, and I’ve never once participated in NaNoWriMo. I’m not going to participate actively this year either. However, that doesn’t in any way mean I don’t appreciate it.
The spirt of November is to get people writing. I have quite a few conversations with people who say they want to be writers, but sure enough, whenever I ask what they’re working on, they never do. NaNoWriMo is a beautiful idea designed to force people who say they want to write to actually write.
When I’m drafting (the portion of the writing process most directly related to NaNoWriMo), I end up writing at least 1,000 words a day, and I average 2,000 on the weekend. So let’s see, that would equate to about 38,000 in a month. So I can’t proclaim I write 50K or have ever written 50K in one month, but I feel confident I’ve done it. At one point while drafting New Utopia, I’d written 10K in a single day just to see if I could. New Utopia is a ways down the road as that’ll need extensive revisions. The point is, I commit to writing everyday. Oddly enough, that makes me think of Christmas or one of those heritage month celebrations.
[image error]I honestly love Christmas. It is, in fact, my favorite holiday, but I promise there’s a correlation. I get upset during heritage month celebrations because they always feel like pretense to me, which is offensive. It feels like, “Today is the day we’re going to acknowledge that people of different races, nations, or sexual orientations are important.” Meanwhile I stand there and wonder why we can’t just be respectful every day of the year? Why can’t we carry on the spirt of Christmas all year?
Do I claim to be perfect? HA! Not remotely. However, I do make a serious effort to be generous whenever possible. To me, generosity is the spirit of the holiday known as Christmas. I also happen to feel personally that it was the day my savior was born, but that’s a different subject.
I also try my best to actually ignore differences. At work, I’m very unconcerned with what color you are, where you’re from, or who you sleep with. All I care about is your ability to perform your job. I love culture. Maybe not “experiencing” so much, but certainly “understanding” it, so I’m prone to asking blunt and endless questions. If I meet someone who’s been to or from another country, I tend to pepper them with questions. I remember when a dear friend of mine became Vegan. I was amused on one degree, but also curious. You see, culture is what makes each of us special, but I’m a firm believer that when someone points out differences, you’re creating segments. So I make it a point to focus on what we all have in common (the work).
So here comes NaNoWriMo, and a bunch of people will sit down and finally start writing. (Hopefully they’re writing their submission for The Power of Words.)
[image error]My feeling, personal though it may be, is that NaNoWriMo takes away excuses. It’s beautiful. I’ve never needed a reason to sit down and write, but if this is what gets young writers in front of keyboards, then I love it.
No, I’m not going to try to write 50K, but I am going to try and get another draft of Repressed done (getting Bob’s second edition on shelves takes priority). That brings me to the spirit of NaNoWriMo, and in that spirit, I offer any first-time participants this advice.
Commit to a word count, but start small in the beginning: This is all the more important if you’re cold starting. Someone who has a few books written or has at least grown to writing every day probably don’t need to worry about this step, but beware overextending. If you say you have to write 1,700 words a day, and that first day you only manage 700, you’ll feel defeated and quit. You will gain speed and word count as you write every day. Don’t panic or quite if you only get a few hundred words out the first week. The more you write, the more momentum you’ll generate and be able to write. I promise!
[image error]Ironically, this image of my students was taken during a failed attempt to teach capitalization as an active-learning exercise.
Write, but just write: I see my students fall into a trap. They want the thing they’re writing to be perfect on the first try. That’s impossible. I’m releasing the second edition of Bob Drifter and even that won’t be perfect, but it’ll be better. There’s more to it, but the relevant part of this is that when I draft, I don’t revise or edit. I just go. It took me, oh, I’d say two years to learn to let go of the desire to be “perfect” when I draft. The first book I ever finished writing went through 21 additional complete rewrites. Each time, I felt more and more defeated. There were many problems, but my biggest hangup was that I kept thinking, “This draft will be perfect.” I don’t think writers ever finish a book; they just run into deadline or realize they have to let go. I leave it to you to decide how many revisions and edits you should do, but if you never write the darn thing in the first place, you’ll never publish anyway.
Make every month NaNoWriMo: Never stop. I don’t draft nearly as much as I write, but I always push forward. Lately, I’ve done a better job of committing to a project. I finished Sojourn before I worked on Bob’s second edition. When I sent that to the editor, I drafted Repressed, and even accidentally drafted The Worth of Words. Now that I have Bob back, I’ll get it on shelves (hopefully by the end of November), and then I’ll turn my full attention to Repressed. But even when I send that out, I’ll shift right over to Worth of Words. My point is, I’m always working. I motivate myself by finishing projects, and having that project I want to get to planned. It sort of tempts me. You see, I’m excited to write Betrayed (the sequel to Caught). That means I can’t wait to finish those other projects so I can get to this one. The more you do, the more you will do. So have fun out there. I may not be with you in function, but I’m absolutely with you in spirit.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
October 24, 2017
Book Review: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Spoiler Free Summary: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is a science fiction novel in which Anderson Lake, a calorie man looking for a way to insert himself into a position to get a look at seed banks for foods believed to be extinct. Taking place in a futuristic Thailand, this book combines social and political intrigue. Anderson stumbles upon a “new person,” also called a Windup, and that chance meeting puts his life, and the very political balance of Thailand in danger.
Character: Honestly, the characters are a bit weak for me. Anderson isn’t very sympathetic. Emiko, the Windup, is sympathetic, but she’s not proactive. I’ll admit her lack of productivity is due in large part to her character flaw, which does add tension to the story, but it frustrates a guy who lives for sympathetic, proactive characters. This book isn’t without stars though. The Tiger of Bangkok is this books best character by far. Note my bias mentioned above. Emiko is fascinating in a lot of ways, but she spends a good deal of the book doing very little.
Exposition: This is better. The author moves things along, letting the reader figure things out or simply move with the plot. There’s not a lot of info dumping, and that counters the slow place created by the description.
Worldbuilding: To me, this is why this book deserved the awards it’s won. This world and these points of conflict are as visceral as they are allegorical. This fantastic world is fascinating for those who like high, speculative science fiction concepts deep with meaning. I won’t lie, it’s not actually MY cup of tea, but I have to tip my hat to this world building. Should the author combine this level of world building with stronger characters, I’d be over the moon. This book’s conflict is the world itself. It has disease, economical strain, and political rivalry; and all of these elements make the setting a tragically wondrous place to visit.
[image error]Photo by JT Thomas Photography pulled from the authors website with his posted permission.
Dialogue: This is fairly average, and there are some scenes here where the dialog seems to slow things down.
Description: In a book where the world and culture are so integral to the plot, it’s fair to expect a lot of description. I think these were necessary elements. Again, fans of books like Dune will love it, I just prefer stories more based in character than setting. That doesn’t make this a bad book, just not the flavor of ice cream I prefer (and everybody likes some flavor of ice cream!). What I will say is the degree of description, which really slows the book down in my opinion, is what makes the world and the culture in it so spectacular. I don’t think you can have world building like this without a lot of description.
Overall: Fans of deep, visceral science fiction like Dune will love this story for its fantastic world building and intricate plot lines that position characters against the setting in a fantastic man vs man vs nature triangle. This book sings to the heart of science fiction by asking tough questions about society and evolution as only science fiction can.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
October 22, 2017
The Second Edition of The Journals of Bob Drifter is In Review!
[image error]Greetings all,
It feels like a huge weight has been lifted. After some careful editing, careful design, and some rather comedic fights with Pages and page-number formatting, I’ve just turned in the PDF of the 2nd Edition of The Journals of Bob Drifter.
I can’t make this more clear. This is not a sequel! One of my readers thought that, and I don’t want to mislead anyone. I had some editorial issues with Bob that I wanted to hash out. More importantly, I needed more control over pricing, sales, and distribution. When I realized I was going to re-release Bob, I made a few decisions.
Get the price down: The original price for the soft-cover of Bob Drifter was $28. Which is almost more than a hard cover for some larger books. That’s never sat well with me. Doing this let me bring the cover price way down (12.99). There won’t be a hard cover for the book, but hard cover books just don’t sell, at least not for me.
[image error]Make each part available. I’ve already shown you the covers for each individual part of Bob Drifter. This lets readers try each part out with out the price commitment of the whole story. An Unusual Occupation (Part One of the story) should come out about three months after the full version. Yes, it also puts more books on my shelf, but the main reason is to let people pay for what they want and read what they want. Buying the full version up front will probably be more cost effective, but people like paying for only what they want.
Change the category. There is a magic system for Bob. I promise! But people just don’t see it as an urban fantasy novel. Putting it in the Supernatural and Paranormal categories is simply a better fit from a marketing point of view. Here’s hoping that leads to more sales.
The other good news is this means I’ll have new copies of Bob available when my convention tour begins in 2018.
I don’t have a release date. I also need to contact Archway to cancel the contract with the first edition. I’m a little worried about how that might go, but it shouldn’t be a big deal. (What worries me is if it’s made into a big deal.) Once I get a release date, I’ll update you all. The Ebook will be relatively close behind the paperback edition, and I’ll keep you all updated on that when I have news to offer.
[image error]In other news, I’ve heard back from three Alpha readers. All thought the Repressed was good. I’ve identified a few things I want to emphasis before I send it to Sara for editing, but so far, it feels like this was a very solid first draft.
This was a big benchmark for me. It lets me focus my attention on the future, which means Betrayed (Oneiros Book Two) isn’t too far from getting started. If you liked the psychic military action in Caught, you’ll love Betrayed. Dom has a much larger role in that novel, as does Kira and Kaitlyn. The team will have to face a lot of tension on a lot of different battlegrounds. I look forward to getting on that. I’ll finish Repressed and Worth of Words. I’m still not remotely sure how many entries I’ll get for that anthology, but I have heard from at least three people who said they’re going to submit. That’s encouraging. Big things are on the horizon in my neck of the woods. I’ll always keep you posted. I still can’t thank you all enough for your interest and support. I hope to keep delivering you stories you enjoy.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
October 20, 2017
Character Study: Dalinar Kaolin from The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Greetings all,
[image error]This image was taken from Audible.com for review and study purpose in accordance with fair use doctrine.
I’ve missed doing character studies, and since I’m reading Way of Kings in preparation for the release of Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer, I thought I’d study one of those characters. Since I’m waiting for Oathbringer, I thought Dalinar deserved center stage.
NOTE: I’m doing this study only on Dalinar in his role in WoK. Please read at your own risk. While I won’t intentionally reveal every plot item I can remember at the moment, I may discuss some things that might take some of the fun out of it for you.
Dalinar is a sympathetic character. He does a lot of things to make people like him. He’s honorable, which is interesting for his arc, and he’s also a loving father and man of pride. Sanderson does a great job showing Dalinar’s efforts. None are more obvious than his interaction with his oldest son Adolin and his dead brother’s widow, Navani. When these characters are together, we see how Dalinar struggles with his conflict. We see how much he wants to be a man of honor and how much strain it puts on his old life.
This is what I want to hone in on for this character study. A character’s interaction with other characters can be 1) a point of conflict and 2) a way to display a character’s personality.
A point of conflict: I think this is the most fascinating aspect of Dalinar’s story in WoK. Dalinar’s desire to follow the code and unite the princedoms is a big shift from the drunken, unconscious man we meet in the beginning of the book. With Adolin we see the conflict Dalinar has to face on his own: Is he crazy, or are his visions really from the Almighty. We also see a strained relationship between a father and the son who idolizes the man his father used to be. Adolin loves his father, but he’s afraid Dalinar is losing (or has lost) his mind. He wants his father to be the mythic warrior, but his father seems to be pulling further away from that old part of his life, and Adolin grows concerned. Even when Adolin finally gets his opinion heard, he then regrets how his father reacts to that information, thus showing us more how much Adolin idolizes Dalinar.
Display a character’s personality: With Navani, we see a different aspect of his struggle. Navani is aggressive in her pursuit of Dalinar, and Dalinar wants her, but at one point in the book he explains that he can’t expect more of his men if he succumbs to his own (arguably inappropriate) desires.
[image error]Fan art by ex-m .
Throw in the visions and the mystery of their origin, and Dalinar shows himself to be an incredibly sympathetic character, who proactively works to resolve his conflicts. Navani is an exception to this. Through most of WoK, Dalinar avoids that conflict. This displays his weakness and how much he wants to give in. He’ll fight dozens of armed opponents. He’ll face his former friend in a unforgiving political arena. He’ll even face his oldest son, and that son’s sadness seeing a respected man possibly going insane. But, if Navani so much as walks in a room, he’s looking for the nearest escort or exit he can find. This shows us it’s harder for him to deny his affection for her than it is to even discuss his sanity or trust an old friend.
Dalinar has what K.M. Weiland’s Creating Character Arcs calls a neutral change arc. Dalinar doesn’t fall into despair (though he’s tempted) and he doesn’t learn a perception altering truth. (For those who’ve read the book, yes, he learned an important secret, but it didn’t change his personality). Dalinar is a pillar. His dedication to the code and honor change those around him (his son and even Kaladin). Neutral arcs are frowned upon these days (in my own egotistical opinion), but I think that’s because they’re so very rarely done correctly. You see, Dalinar doesn’t change, but his (as Weiland would put it) “belief in his truth” makes him an example for others to follow.
This arc is effective not just because of an interesting opponent (Sadeas), but also (and in my opinion more so) because of Adolin and Navani, who provide the most stress and challenge to his known truth (his faith in the code and adherence to honor). This arc is made sympathetic because they care about Dalinar. If everyone was against Dalinar (as Sadeas is), he’d look like nothing more than some jerk being high and mighty. Sadeas points this out near the 70-percent mark of the book. However, Sanderson gives us two compelling characters who love Dalinar and want to believe in him. Their doubts are what show his strength, and as their faith in him grows, so does the reader’s.
If you haven’t read Way of Kings or Words of Radiance (the first two books of the Starlight Archive), you’re really missing out on some great reading. I like taking a step back and analyzing a character, but I’m reading this book for the third time because it’s just that good.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
October 17, 2017
Book Review: Zombies from Space…and Vampires by Angela B. Chrysler
Spoiler Free Summary: Zombies from Space…and Vampires is an urban paranormal story by Angela B. Chrysler. NOTE: If you follow my blog, you know that Angela is the captain of the Shush Brain, of which I am a loyal member. Also note, this book features characters near and dear to my heart, Weeches, Angela’s twist on zombies. You can take this review with however much salt you want, but consider this my disclaimer. Aria was just finishing up a night and talking to her father when a UFO flew overhead. The zombies attacking were unusual, right up until the vampire kidnapped her. Aria winds up on the ship full of a wonderfully ridiculous (and yet somehow familiar) crew. Zombies was a bit of fun Angela did on her blog that took up steam. It started as her just finding cool ways to write us Slush Brainers into the world, and evolved into this story.
Character: Aria is a solid character. I’d label this at YA hoping Angela is OK with that. Most stories that feature a young woman (Aria is 19), fall into that category. She’s a solid character to build around. She’s the one sane person in this madhouse of a story, and that makes her charming. Where everyone else is Level 11 zany, she’s the one normal spot in the book, which ups the conflict and provides an interesting backdrop to the story. As I mentioned above, every character in this book was inspired by a member of the real life Slush Brain. I’m biased here, but the cast is just a lot of fun.
Exposition: There’s a bit more here than usual, but you need to explain how alien zombies and vampires managed to pop up in modern day earth. It’s done with decent pacing, and there’s plenty of action to offset it.
[image error]This image was used in a previous post. It was given with the author’s permission.
Worldbuilding: This is solid. At least, it’s effective because the characters just roll with things. In a story like this (good, wacky fun with mayhem), it’s most effective when the characters behave as if they’d always expected this sort of stuff. In that regard, it reminds me of Slither. That’s not an insult. I LOVE that movie for the same reason I enjoyed this book. When everything is impossibly, hilariously hard to believe, everyone acts like it’s the normal, which helped Aria’s character and conflict.
Dialogue: This was top notch. Honest and real. Most of the effective character building was done through dialogue.
Description: This had most of the description in the right parts: action and mayhem. Though the characters are also very clear in the imagination. I honestly just loved seeing these characters come to life.
Overall: This has a bit of a cliffhanger, but the story is episodic in nature, so it’s to be expected. Every now and then, a reader needs a story that’s just good times and cool, zany action. This is that book. I enjoyed it, and I’m hoping to see more from the story.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
October 14, 2017
Announcing the September Book Cover of the Month
Hello everyone,
The September Book Cover of the Month bracket has just wrapped up. Regrettably, it is officially the record holder for the least voted on month in the bracket’s history. These things happen sometime. I’ll work harder to spread word, but I still want to thank everyone who did get involved. These brackets are special to me, and they grow more legitimate and meaningful each time we keep heading forward.
We had 2,092 votes this month. Here’s hoping this month holds the record for a long time.
We’ll keep moving on, but today is all about celebrating this month’s winner.
The September Book Cover of the Month is…
[image error]
Night Stalker by R.L. Weeks! If you’re curious about how I felt about the book, check out the Facebook post that I posted when this book first landed on the bracket, here.
Let’s look at the stats!
Weeks received 162 total votes. This was honestly a close fight in terms of votes, but Weeks took the lead with about four days to go and didn’t let go.
[image error]The Festival of Trial and Ember Forest finished second, which means that’ll have another chance to be the Book Cover of the Month for October.
That said, Weeks is the winner this month, so let’s look at her book.
Amazon:
(START BLURB)
Casey and George are traveling around Japan’s notorious suicide forest when they see something move in the tree line and Casey can’t shake the feeling that someone has been following them.
Later that night, Casey wakes up to find a woman in their room. After breaking free of the woman’s entrancement, Casey wakes George, who convinces her it was just a dream.
George has been acting off since their visit to Japan. Now they’re home, the worst happens and George is killed in a freak accident.
It’s one year later and she’s about to leave her small hometown, Pleasant Springs – in hopes that her nightmares would end. Since his death, her dreams have been haunted by a mystery guy who is hellbent on causing her pain, but, before she makes it to the airport, Casey is kidnapped and taken to the hotel from her nightmares.
She is plunged into a creepy world filled with the supernatural, underground cities, and sick games.
Her mystery guy tells her he is trying to save her from the others. However, her ex – George could be behind her kidnapping in the most sinister way.
Nothing is as it seems in the dark world of the Stalkers.
(END BLURB)
As always, I’ve purchased the book and added it to my TBR. (For those who are new to the deal, I buy the Book Cover of the Month to read and review in the future. I bought Manning’s cover, Howard’s cover, Deyo’s cover, Jones’s Cover, Hubert’s Cover, MacNiven’s cover, Jon del Arroz’s, Rob J. Hayes’s, and Chris Philbrook’s They are also on my TBR. Manning’s review is here. Howard’s review is here. Deyo’s review is here. I’ve read Jones’s book, and I’ll post a review for it in a few weeks.
Here’s Weeks’s Facebook page. Give it a like if you’re curious about her and her work.
I don’t know who the artist is yet, but I’ll see if Weeks will help with that.
The October bracket is still under development, but it looks good so far. It’ll kick of Nov. 1.
I will continue to identify and select covers for each day from Amazon’s New Release section for fantasy and science fiction. If you follow and like my Facebook page, you can see what covers will make the bracket.
Thanks for reading
Matt
October 13, 2017
Don’t Mind Me. I’m Just Working
I’ve been so caught up in getting the second edition of The Journals of Bob Drifter done, I honestly forgot what day it was. The good news is I’m 82 percent through the final proofread. I’ll announce the Book Cover of the Month tomorrow, so stop by for that. If you haven’t already voted, please do so here.
Sorry for what amounts to an excuse for why I don’t have a post today, but I really am trying to get this out and available as soon as possible.
Oh! I got my first alpha reader feedback for Repressed (Thanks again, Grace!). Early feedback is very positive! So I’m hard at work. See you tomorrow!
Thanks for reading,
Matt
October 10, 2017
Book Review: No Marine Left Behind by J.R. Handley
[image error]Spoiler Free Summary: No Marine Left Behind is a short story featuring Sashala Kraevoi. Author J.R. Handley gives us a deeper glimpse into one of the characters in the series. Sashala starts out leading a normal mission, but when one of her Marines ends up alone and surrounded by aliens and steeped in hopeless odds, Sashala charges to the rescue. Survival is mandatory. Escape is the goal.
Character: Sashala is a strong character (I mean that literally, she’s physically strong), which is nice. Having served with some amazing Marines (both man and woman), I like seeing a woman take the lead now and then. For a story this short, there wasn’t a lot of room for development, but you still get to see how determined she is. That determination is her best asset.
Exposition: I’ll admit Andrew get’s a little heavy handed here, but there’s a purpose to this. His wordplay is brilliant, but it can’t survive in dialogue alone. The humor of said word-play is more than fair compensation for the slightly higher-than-average exposition.
Worldbuilding: Based in the Human Legion world, the reader knows there’s more out there to learn, but I wasn’t overwhelmed with too much (a few terms I didn’t recognize here or there). This book was a thousand miles an hour, so there wasn’t much in the way of scope or setting. The reader saw what was essential to the plot, and nothing more.
[image error]Dialogue: I’ll admit it’s been a while since I’ve read this story. I think some of it felt a bit “too” Marine for my taste. What I mean by this is there wasn’t much beyond the orders and stereotypical banter. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination; it just didn’t add a lot to the character.
Description: It didn’t bother me so much, especially with a story this short. There wasn’t a lot of description. This story is driven by action and pacing. Handley didn’t bog that down with overly descriptive blocks of information.
Overall: This was a fun “dinner” read. (No really, I read it during a meal.) It’s action packed and full of cool fight scenes and scifi visual moments. It had an 80s action movie feel to it that I liked.
Thanks for reading
Matt
October 7, 2017
September Book Cover of the Month Midway Update
[image error]Greetings all,
With just about seven days left in this month’s bracket, I thought this would be a good chance to update you all on how things have been progressing. Unfortunately, this is a very slow month. How slow? It’s in the running for the least-voted (full month) competition. (December didn’t have a full 32 entries.)
933 votes so far. Now, as few votes as we’ve had, I will say it’s a very close fight.
[image error]For a Few Credits More, edited by Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey, has had the lead for a few days now.
Most Voted on so far: Scars of the Sand by Frank Dorrian has the most total votes so far with 74.
Least Voted for: Seeds of Blood by C. Chancy. This cover only has a total of seven votes. I think it’s deserving of more than that even if the voters feel it’s not deserving of the championship.
The other good news is that the championships are the closest round. There are essentially three books right in the hunt for the championship. Credits, Sand, and The Festival of Tiral and Ember by Logan Miehl are all within three “finals” votes of each other. This means if either book gets three people to vote them all the way through, they’re right back in the winners’ circle.
[image error]A quick reminder of how the tournament works. The easiest way to win is to have the most people vote for you in every round. The trick is you have to have the most people vote you through in each round, all the way to the final. As an example, 100 people could vote someone through to the finals, but that doesn’t do a cover any good if he doesn’t win the first round. It’s not total votes. It’s not simple championship votes. The winning cover has to have the most votes in each round of the competition.
Since this is such a slow month, ANYONE can win if they can get nine people to vote them all the way through to the championships.
This will be the only update for this type of bracket. It’s been an amazing tournament to watch thus far, and I hope readers continue to support their authors by voting, liking, and sharing the bracket with as many people as possible. You can vote at this address!
I’ll announce the winner is just seven days!
Thanks for reading,
Matt
